Time rewound slightly, returning to a few minutes earlier.
At this moment, Thanatos, who had escaped with the assistance of Barca, had fallen to the next floor through the movable adamantite flooring.
After landing on this floor, Thanatos did not even bother with the pain in his lower back from the fall, immediately getting up and running.
"Wow, that was really a close call."
Thanatos casually let out a remark while running, showing not the slightest sign of panic, mainly because this outcome had not been outside his expectations.
When he had prepared to step forward and face Riezel, he had already considered the possibility that the operation might fail.
He was, after all, currently a god with omniscience but zero power, his Arcanum sealed. Even with Ishtar, who could use charm, and Kali, a Goddess of War, accompanying him, facing someone capable of easily defeating Gugalanna—whose strength even surpassed the Monster Rex Balor—there had always been a high chance that the delaying operation would fail.
If it had been an ordinary mortal facing Riezel, they might not even have had the thought of resisting, so the fact that Thanatos dared to step forward, just as Kali had said, already counted as quite courageous.
Of course, that was also because Thanatos knew he would not be killed, since he knew people of the Lower World did not dare to casually violate the taboo of slaying gods.
In his estimation, at worst, he would simply be captured by Riezel, as the latter had said, and would not immediately lose his life and be sent back to Heaven. As long as he was not immediately sent back to Heaven, there would still be ways to escape.
For the Thanatos Familia, which controlled the various traps of Knossos, that was not something impossible to accomplish.
Fortunately, he had not been captured and had managed to escape smoothly.
Thanks to Ishtar acting as a meat shield for a while at the front, and thanks to Ein’s intervention, he had been able to escape like this.
"Well, that’s that. Ishtar and Kali are probably furious right now, huh?"
Needless to say, what Thanatos had done was essentially abandoning them.
Kali aside, Ishtar would definitely be furious, and afterward she might even come looking for trouble with him since she was exactly that kind of person—petty and narrow-minded, unable to tolerate much.
"Forget it, no point thinking about them. I should focus on how to get through this crisis."
While running, Thanatos began to brainstorm.
At present, although their situation looked unfavorable, it was not without a chance to turn things around.
Riezel was certainly out of control and would inevitably rampage through Knossos, and might even break into the 10th Floor, encounter the existence currently waiting there, and cause a decisive impact on their plan.
However, the other members of the Loki Familia did not possess such influence, nor did they have such overwhelming strength.
Rather, their current situation was extremely dangerous.
Unlike Riezel, who was charging downward without restraint, they were presently in a state where they could be forced into a desperate corner and lose their lives at any moment.
In that case...
"There’s a way to leak information about them to that little monster and draw his attention."
"As long as he knows his companions are in danger, that little monster won’t keep charging downward and will instead go rescue them."
"Letting the kids of the Loki Familia reunite with him isn’t exactly ideal, but it’s still better than letting him break into the 10th Floor and see ’that.’"
While calculating these possibilities, Thanatos once again revealed a smile.
"No matter what happens, even if the Loki Familia escapes in the end, it won’t affect our plan."
"Soon, Orario will become a field of ruins."
"And when that time comes, the world I desire will finally arrive."
In this world, there were many kinds of gods, such as Goddesses of Beauty like Freya and Ishtar, who controlled the authority of beauty, and gods like the Goddess of Smithing, Hephaestus, who had achieved great accomplishments in a particular field and therefore held a deep obsession with it.
Thanatos belonged to this type as well.
He was the god who controlled death and manipulated it.
In Heaven, his duty was to manage the souls of the children of the lower world who had died. Sometimes he issued punishment, sometimes he purified them, sometimes he gave praise, and sometimes he allowed them to reincarnate.
Such things were his work and also his responsibility.
However, after the chaotic ancient era ended, the Dungeon was sealed, and Orario came into existence—ushering in the Age of Gods in which the gods descended into the Lower World—Thanatos’s work gradually became more leisurely.
Why?
Because fewer people died.
Because fewer souls arrived in Heaven.
Because monsters could no longer pour out of the Dungeon, and powerful adventurers had appeared one after another thanks to Falna, gaining the power to fight monsters, the number of casualties decreased, and the number of souls returning to Heaven dropped drastically, to the point that Thanatos, as the God of Death, no longer needed to remain busy.
As a result, Thanatos felt dissatisfied with this.
’Life and death are two sides of the same coin.’
’If the number of the living keeps increasing while no deaths occur, the cycle of the Lower World will only malfunction and become clogged.’
’It was better in the past. Children kept dying, and I had work to do.’
Holding such beliefs, Thanatos descended to the Lower World.
’I want the children to die a little more.’
With this thought in mind, Thanatos became an evil god, established Evilus, and attempted to bring death and chaos to the Lower World.
Hence, when the servant of Enyo appeared before him, seeking cooperation and proposing a plan to destroy Orario, Thanatos accepted without hesitation.
He wanted Orario to disappear.
He wanted the ancient age to return.
He wanted to see a great number of souls return to Heaven, restoring the original cycle and bringing life and death back into balance.
When that time came, he would return to Heaven and once again carry out his duties as a God of Death.
Therefore...
"No matter what, the plan to destroy Orario must succeed..."
Thanatos muttered this to himself with a smile, seemingly having forgotten that Riezel once said he was nothing more than a tool.
"..."
At a certain moment, Thanatos, who had been running through the underground passage, suddenly stopped.
"...Who are you?"
Thanatos stared, stunned, at the person who had appeared before him without him noticing.
Looking mysterious and unidentifiable, the person wore a mask on their face, along with a purplish-indigo robe that covered their entire body, with a black shawl draped over it. Several masks hung from the shawl, creating an unsettling sight.
Thanatos had never seen this person before and did not recognize them at all, yet from the aura emanating from them, he could be certain that this person was a god like himself.
"...Enyo?"
Thanatos questioned uncertainly, but what answered him was not words, but action.
*Pu-chi!*
A sharp blade pierced through Thanatos’s chest as the mysterious god suddenly rushed forward and stabbed a dagger straight into his chest.
"Eh...? AAAAAAARGHHH—!!!"
Thanatos screamed instantly and instinctively swung his arm, pushing the god in front of him away.
Because of that, the mysterious god staggered slightly but quickly regained their balance.
From behind the mask, the mysterious god looked at Thanatos, whose chest was stained with blood, and the corner of their mouth curled into a horrifying curve.
"Thanks for your hard work, God of Death."
Looking at the shocked Thanatos, the mysterious god spoke calmly.
"I’ll take over from here since you’re no longer useful."
Right after saying this, the mysterious god’s robe swayed as they turned cleanly and walked away.
Only Thanatos remained, collapsing onto the blood-red floor while staring at the departing back with eyes splitting with fury.
"ENYOOO—!!!"
Just like that, the shout filled with anger and hatred became the final words this God of Death left behind in the Lower World.
Not long after, light began to seep out from Thanatos’s body.
In order to preserve the life of a god who had suffered a fatal wound, the sealed Arcanum manifested on its own and repaired Thanatos’s injuries, but the appearance of Arcanum also meant that his game in the Lower World had come to an end.
*Buzzz—!!!*
When the light turned into a giant pillar and rose from Thanatos’s body, Knossos began to tremble.
As the pillar of light that symbolized a god’s return shot upward with a roar, piercing through the entirety of Knossos and rising from Daedalus Street in Orario, in that very moment, from every corner of Orario, no matter who they were, everyone could see the dazzling pillar of light shooting straight into the sky.
In an instant, that pure, beautiful, and tragic pillar of a god’s return not only captured the attention of every person and god but also stole away the calm they had possessed only moments before.
And so, on this day, every person and god in Orario came to know something.
On what had seemed like an utterly ordinary day, in one corner of Orario, a battle had taken place in silence. And given that a god had actually fallen and had been returned to Heaven, that battle must have been extremely fierce.
===
Meanwhile, outside the entrance of Knossos, the support group of the Loki Familia, who had been stationed here, was thrown off balance by the sudden, violent shaking.
"Loki!"
Riveria had lost her usual composure and calm as she shouted toward her goddess.
"I know!"
Loki no longer wore her usual carefree expression.
Lying on the ground, she forced her eyes open and stared at the pillar of light that seemed almost within reach, her face grave.
"Who?"
"Who got sent back?"
"Enyo? Or a god of Evilus?"
Lacking information, these were the only gods Loki could think of.
At the very least, according to what she knew, they were likely the only gods who could currently appear inside the Man-Made Dungeon.
"Finn and Riezel didn’t actually lay hands on a god, did they?" Loki questioned, clicking her tongue openly. "If that’s the case, then we’re screwed."
God-slaying was a taboo.
Even if the other party was an evil god attempting to destroy Orario, judgment should not be carried out by people of the Lower World.
Loki could only hope—hope that the unlucky god had been accidentally caught in some unforeseen incident and lost their life for nothing, rather than being killed by her own children.
Just then, she realized something.
"Looks like this can’t really be kept quiet anymore..."
From this moment onward, Orario would inevitably fall into turmoil—there was no avoiding it.
===
[A bonus Chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
[Support me and read next Chapters early at: /VALRRR]